Bill Cosby's reputation and legacy has completely nosedived in under two months thanks to a string of allegations by several different women. Is Cosby really capable of drugging and sexually assaulting women on a regular basis? Could this many people who have never met be telling the same lie? That is what the comedian's legal team is trying to convince us of. It seems the public has hung on the words of those affiliated with Cosby and input from those who worked with him on the set of The Cosby Show seems invaluable. Finally, Phylicia Rashad is speaking up.

Rashad was Cosby's television wife for years, and after staying quiet for several weeks, she finally spoke exclusively with Showbiz 411 yesterday, and she staunchly defended her friend.

"Rashad, who is one of our greatest stage actresses, has kept quiet, didn't seek me out and even said, 'I don't want to become part of the public debate.' But knowing this she did say to me, 'I love him' about Bill Cosby. She stands defiantly behind him. She told me that in the years she's known him, she has never seen the behavior alleged by the women who say they were drugged and raped, or sexually harassed," wrote Roger Friedman.

"Forget these women," Rashad said. "What you're seeing is the destruction of a legacy. And I think it's orchestrated. I don't know why or who's doing it, but it's the legacy. And it's a legacy that is so important to the culture."

Rashad dismisses claims from Beverly Johnson and Janice Dickinson.

"Oh, please," she said when their names came up.

She is also quick to defend Camille Cosby.

"This is a tough woman, a smart woman," she told me. "She's no pushover."

There is no question, Rashad said, that Camille Cosby has not been complicit or looked the other way as her husband terrorized women for the last 50 years.

She said, "Someone is determined to keep Bill Cosby off TV," alluding to people other than the women. "And it's worked. All his contracts have been canceled."

So Rashad needs to believe that her friend of several decades is totally incapable of doing the things he has been accused of. She also insists that this is really about destroying Cosby's legacy.

Does that make sense to you? Don't we generally like to have a few pop-culture icons up on a pedestal at all times? Do you think this is about ruining his legacy for real, or does Rashad just need to believe that because she could not stomach the alternative? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.

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